Let’s see how this flies ...

Published: June 16, 2014;Last modified: June 16, 2014 05:00AM

LIFE

Winging it

RATED: LIFT

Lotsa Interest in Flying Things

About a month ago, County Commissioner Sal Pace responded to my plea to find new locations for the Fly Pueblo Paper Airplane contest. He offered the front lawn of the County Courthouse — soon to become a major vegetable garden — for the event.

By that time, however, many of the pieces of Plane-A-Palooza had already thudded into place. I was getting a little overwhelmed with the logistics already in hand to add new pieces.

Still, I thought, what better way to give the contest an air of authority than to have county government memorialize it?

Worth a try.

To my surprise, it worked.

I supplied them with my own suggested resolution (See it on the Fly Pueblo Paper Airplane Contest Facebook page).

Once it went through the sausage grinder of attorneys, staff and other bureaucratic legerdemain, here is the version they passed:

PROCLAMATION

FLY PUEBLO PAPER AIRPLANE CONTEST MONTH

June 2014

WHEREAS: Fly Pueblo Paper Airplane Contest has been a part of Pueblo’s history, being held in different locations throughout Pueblo County, including one year at the airport parking lot on a windy Wednesday morning, another year on a Thursday afternoon at the newly opened Convention Center, another time at the Buell Children’s Museum before the front lawn was installed, one year at the Pueblo Chemical Depot and yet another at the Pueblo Zoo, where a turkey briefly walked onto the course and nearly caused an animal rights issue; and

WHEREAS: The origin of paper airplanes is somewhat of a mystery, and are of great historical significance, as they played a part in the Wright Brothers aircraft design through use of paper models and wind tunnel; and

WHEREAS: Our eyes glaze over many pieces of paper that pass before us; and

WHEREAS: Many of those pieces of paper would become aerodynamically functional when proper creasing, folding, pressing and tucking is applied; and

WHEREIN: June is the perfect month for a Paper Airplane Contest, because, let’s face it, June is when you take a deep breath after May and get ready for July.

NOW, THEREFORE, WE, the Board of Pueblo County Commissioners, of the County of Pueblo, and State of Colorado, do hereby proclaim June 2014, as “FLY PUEBLO PAPER AIRPLANE CONTEST MONTH” in Pueblo County, Colorado.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, we have hereunto set our hands and caused the Seal of Pueblo County, Colorado, to be affixed this ninth day of June 2014.

Board of Pueblo County Commissioners

Terry A. Hart, Liane “Buffie” McFadyen, Sal Pace.

At my suggestion, the commissioners then folded copies to the document and threw them off the courthouse steps.